The present invention relates to door handle assemblies and, more particularly, to door handle assemblies for vehicles.
Until recently, door handle assemblies for vehicles have been purely mechanical devices, requiring a handle portion, which is coupled to a latching mechanism, to be rotated or pivoted to either latch or unlatch the latching mechanism. In addition, a key has been typically required to lock or unlock the latching mechanism. For example, some door handle assemblies include a strap type handle, which pivots about one end of the handle. The pivoting end of the handle is coupled to a latch mechanism, for example by a cable or a linkage, which is actuated by the pivoting of the handle. Other door handle assemblies include a paddle type handle, which is mounted to a pivotal shaft, for example, in a recessed portion of the door, with the shaft being coupled to the latch mechanism, which is actuated by the pivoting of the shaft. Other styles include tailgate assemblies, including T-shaped handles that rotate about their central axis to latch or unlatch the latch mechanism. Typically, these door handle assemblies are fabricated as a unitary assembly and attached to the door.
More recently, some vehicles have incorporated electrical components, which provide a key-less locking or unlocking device. The electrical components typically include a numerical keypad that requires the keys of the keypad to be pressed in a pre-selected sequence in order to unlock the latching mechanism. In addition, these electrical components have also been adapted to permit remote unlocking of the vehicle, which is particularly useful in extreme weather conditions or in low light conditions, especially where safety may be a concern. While it is known to have electrical components associated with some styles of handles, these electrical components heretofore have been bulky and expensive. As a result, these electrical components have been some what limited in their use and have not been implemented in more compact door handle assemblies where the geography of the handle assembly provides insufficient mounting space for the key pad and the associated wires and connectors.
Consequently, there is a need to extend the use of electrical components to a wide variety of door handle assemblies so that the more compact door handle assemblies may have the full range of key-less entry options.